Pizza Hut Hong Kong was releasing an entirely new way of eating pizza – Melts. The on-the-go pizza experience was targeted toward a younger consumer, despite most Hong Kong Pizza Hut consumers being families. Sales of traditional Pizza Hut offerings had also plateaued, so a lot rode on the success of Melts.

We were tasked to create a buzz on a media channel where Hong Kong’s young consumers spent most of their time – social.

The primary objective was to make Melts talk of the town and on social media. And try to give Pizza Hut a younger, more tech-savvy image.

The least intelligent way to use artificial intelligence.

Most brands look to get smart with AI and solve business and life problems. Pizza Hut sells pizza – it’s fun, it’s delicious, and definitely not rocket science.

So at the height of AI madness, we wondered how we could use the transformative technology in the stupidest and funniest way possible.

PizzAI Hut used generative AI to tap into the humor of an entire generation and got our fans laughing together at stupid AI-generated images.

We asked. How far would you go to enjoy FREE Melts?

Fans delivered with creatively hilarious scenarios like how they “would fight off Mongols for Melts” or “take Melts to space with their pet rabbits”. We fed their comments into Midjourney creating Melts-inspired AI images. And the craziest were used to create a social video celebrating our fans’ creativity!

Pizza Hut Melts were directly targeting Gen-Z.

Gen-Z Hong Kongers seek out brands that promote co-creation and allow them to actively shape new trends.

Embracing novelty is their primary motivation, with 69% always in pursuit of the next cool thing (Sia Partners – GenZ in Asia 2023).

Nearly 3 in 10 Gen-Z use social media to find inspiration (GWI – 10 most important social media statistics 2023).

8 in 10 Hong Kongers spend ~2 hours on social media daily (Statista – Social Media in Hong Kong 2024).

So PizzAI Hut aimed to fuel youth creativity through active contribution and wholehearted engagement on their preferred media channel, Facebook.

Tapping into artificial intelligence to harness the latest online novelty helped transform Pizza Hut’s Facebook page into a portal of creativity, hilarity, and fun.

PizzAI Hut started with a single Facebook post (8 June, 2023) showcasing humorous ways to enjoy Melts, AI-generated of course. A simple CTA urged fans to comment to the post and tell us how far they would go for FREE Melts!

Fans were given just a few days to submit their UGC which PizzAI Hut instantly translated from Chinese to English then fed into Midjourney to generate stupid Melts-inspired AI images. We then replied these images back to commenters, sparking a frenzy of commenting as fans tried to outhumor each other.

The best AI-generated images were used in an epic, economical social video post celebrating fan creativity.

Finally, we slipped into the DMs of fans whose AI image made the social video cut and gave them FREE Melts coupons!

With just 2 Facebook posts PizzAI Hut transformed generative AI from a tool for creativity into one for consumer engagement.

Total engagement was 17,608.

Total reach was 236,400.

Post interactions were 12X higher than our average.

Post shares were 26X higher than our average.

YouGov Buzz Score increased 60% after the posts.

Melts sales surged 21% after the posts. Pushing total 1st month sales past client’s HK$1,000,000.00 target with actual sales coming in at ~HK$1,600,000.00.